Jupiter’s Red Spot

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   Mankind has long pondered the Red Spot on Jupiter’s surface since the advent of the telescope. Current theories in planetary astronomy has proposed this hypothesis, that some type of atmospheric disturbance affecting the surface, similar to the hurricanes and typhoons occurring on Earth, as the cause. Yet in the midst of the many bands of high-speed wind currents racing horizontally in varying latitudes along the surface of Jupiter, the Red Spot has maintained its position, size, and form over the last centuries. The red hue and cyclonic flow, unusual properties of the Red Spot does not seem to fit any pattern observed on the other known planets. Therefore, one must look carefully at the total planetary processes occurring not only in its atmosphere, but also consider the core, to find the cause to this mystery.

 

Photo Courtesy of NASA

 

   Unknown in today’s learned circles of astrophysics, the planetary makeup of Jupiter is similar to that of a small star. During the advent of stellar creation in this sector of the universe, the local Big Bang initialized the expansion of matter and energy from a black hole with a mass of galactic proportions. The expansion of the local area immediately was dampened, as gravity from the remnant mass left at the center of the big bang affected the environment. Then matter coalesced into ever-growing masses among the gaseous nebula and solid stellar debris drifting about randomly. The heavy element, which makes up most of the coalescing matter during the initial stages, fuses quickly, due to gravitational forces, trapping hydrogen gas and other light elements indiscriminately within its structure, permeating what is to become the cosmic object’s core. In Jupiter’s case, its planetary formation was dependant on the heavy elements, once in abundance in the neighborhood during the early stages of development of Jupiter, now are in short supply in the local spatial area. The planet’s rate of formation and size relied on the strength of the gravitational force emanating from final heavy element mass that had gathered, the future rocky core of Jupiter, and the continuing availability of light elements in the local spatial area. Jupiter’s future core, now sufficiently massive to attract the light elements from its gravitational field, begins to grow. The process continues, until all the available hydrogen nebula gas is so sparse gravity can no longer gather enough light elements to offset its losses escaping back into space for a positive expansion, thus the growth of the planet terminates. Jupiter’s mass is now sufficiently large enough that gravitational compression can initiate random sporadic internal fusion reactions and does, but differentiates itself from a star by its composition and the amount of energy produced its core. 

   In a star, hydrogen pockets are distributed in a frequency, that when fusion reactions start, the energy and light produced exceeds the caring capacity of the stellar mass. The excess energy is diffused into space, which is exhibited as a hot luminous object. Examining the process of fusion energy production occurring in the core, in Jupiter’s case there is a sparse population of dispersed hydrogen pockets surrounded by heavy elements within the core, which undergo gravitational compression, due to its total mass. That limits the rate of the fusion process in the core to proceed as a sporadic slow burn, dissipating the heat and light energy into the mass of Jupiter. This controlled release of energy is great enough to surpass the absorption rate of the mass of Jupiter, making it a net producer of heat and energy, but not sufficient to be classified as a hybrid between a star and a planet, now classified as a Brown Dwarf. 

   The core of Jupiter, which is also responsible for its rotation, presently is in a state of motion. Resulting from a constant need to equalize differences in pressure and gravitational forces occurring within various zones of the core. Movement starts as core matter flows across the least path of resistance, a perpendicular path to the north south magnetic alignment of the iron elements present in the liquid core or parallel to the equatorial plane. Movement of matter, which occurs in the core, could be represented by a set of thin parallel discs of core matter that maintain their latitudinal positions during rotation. Circular motion is initiated as flow patterns setup moving from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure within the containment of Jupiter’s core. A cyclonic flow sets up around the axis of rotation in the same direction, with each disc of stacked flowing matter reinforcing each other. During the mixing process, which occurs in the core, an occasional large spherical pocket of hydrogen accumulates other pockets within the local area slowly into a large colony of fuel pockets. This large colony of hydrogen pockets, now referred to as an anomaly in the core, drifts into a zone within the interior core of the planet Jupiter, where gravitational compression initiates the fusion process. The production of heat and light accelerates in this area, from a higher concentration of hydrogen pockets in proportion to heavy elements. As viscosity of the planetary core mass thins in the area of the core anomaly, acceleration of this coalescing process of fuel pockets occurs, due to a lower density of the core mass. The anomaly, now in a hyperactive state in the core of Jupiter, radiates energy into the nearby surrounding mass. This creates a stationary spherical shape bubble of superheated mass around the anomaly. The top half of the bubble boils away providing a stream of superheated matter constantly flowing towards the surface in the shape of an ever expanding, undulating elongated tube. The rotational spin of the planet Jupiter applies a centrifugal force to the ascending mass in conjunction with its lighter density contained within the tube in relation to the surrounding mass, providing a momentum guide that maintains the same latitude in relation to the rotational equator through migratory transition from the core to the surface. During this migration, the hot compressed tubular shaped mass from the core to the surface undergoes a change. 

   The laws of inertia affect the fluid state of Jupiter’s core. The super heated mass within the tube has a lower density and higher temperature than the surrounding cooler planetary mass, resulting in a tube of mass that flows faster towards the surface than the surrounding mass. Simultaneously, this tubular mass due to a lower density does not have the same moment of inertia about the axis of rotation of Jupiter. Thus, an accelerated flow of planetary currents perpendicular to the outside perimeter of the tube ensues, deforming and stretching the cross sectional circular shape of the ascending tube into an oval from drag created from the passing faster currents of dense planetary matter applying a force to the circumference of the lighter matter contained within the tube. This creates a parallel series of wide bands semi-liquid mass flowing at different rates on the surface of the planet due to the average mass of the material flowing in the parallel bands and it’s distance from to center of rotational axis. A differential in surface flow rates is easily observed by telescope. Once reaching the surface, the light and heat produced is the diffused through the translucent atmosphere and appears to an observer as the "Great Red Spot". The area’s higher temperature causes a low-pressure atmospheric area to form above the surface. The density differences between the atmosphere and the Red Spot form a cyclonic flow within the effected area, similar to our storms, as the air masses try to find temperature equilibrium. Only subtle differences in the internal currents of the planet cause varying longitude positional changes, which would be represented by a line perpendicular to the equator that terminates at either pole, over time. This caused from a mixture of planetary matter in the moving bands, which are not homogenous. Resulting in a variance in the planetary longitudinal location the Red Spot. One only has to look at Jupiter’s heat excess output to question present theories. Mankind’s’ observation of the oval Red Spot, is one of many surface anomalies, but the most prominent and has failed to realize, that Jupiter’s red glow emanating from the spot, is an internal phenomena produced from within its core.

 

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Mankind's Current Theory on Jupiter's Red Spot